Did they hear about emotional pay? Today the salary no longer consists only of economic remuneration; employee well-being is increasingly positioned as an aspect that companies need to look at and look after, which is why emotional pay is becoming increasingly important. According to a recent study conducted by Citrix in 5 Latin American countries, 88% of respondents find it very important that the company culture is focused on the physical and mental well-being of employees.
The focus on well-being is not something new, but like many other aspects of work last year its evolution accelerated. Until a few years ago, job well-being was seen only as a good work climate, growth opportunities and good leadership. Then we moved on to incorporating other benefits like healthy snacks, gym subscriptions, lunches all together and more. The home office has timidly appeared, daylight saving time and little by little flexibility has begun to take place as a benefit of well-being and there has been talk of a balance between work and personal life.
Now achieving this balance is at the heart of well-being and has a lot to do with being able to better manage our times, with having flexible hours defined by goals and not by fixed schedules. Technology has a lot to contribute in this regard by providing the ability to access all the data and applications we need to work from anywhere and at any time. And that goes beyond having a laptop and an internet connection, it’s about having the same work experience as in the office. If any place is transformed into “office-like” going all the time to the same physical place does it make sense? In fact, 66% of respondents believe that the future of offices will be hybrid, meaning that office work will be combined with remote work. And the goal of going to the office will be to create with others, collaborate and not spend 9 hours sitting in front of the computer.
But as more technologies are incorporated into the workspace (which certainly happened in 2020) the need arises to take care of digital well-being; that would become the healthy relationship we need to have with technology. There are technologies, in fact, that make noise and distraction, that help organize our day and guide people so that they can achieve their daily goals. They are even responsible for performing small repetitive actions. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, they have the ability to learn how each employee works and adapt to guide them intelligently to the applications, data and tools they use frequently. In this way technology is positioned as an enabler and not as an obstacle, and allows employees to optimize their workday by achieving the flexibility they desire.
Over the years the Human Resources department was the one to carry out the welfare policies. But it is clear that for the future well-being is only achieved with the synergy of the whole organization. And more than ever the HR and Technology departments need to work together to give people back control over their time, which is ultimately the most valuable resource we all have.
